Ash receiver

ABSTRACT

The ash receiver of the invention is of the type adapted for installation on the dashboard of an automobile. It includes a housing for fastening to the vehicle dashboard and a drawer slidably received in the housing. The drawer has elongated projections on each sidewall thereof which are received in concave grooves of elongated plastic guide elements secured to the sidewalls of the housing. The guide elements are fabricated from a resilient plastic material such as nylon or ABS resin. The guide elements include lip portions which exert spring-like pressure on the projections. The interior wall surfaces of the concave recesses converge to form an ever-narrowing recess to thereby permit reception of projections which may vary in dimension.

United States Patent [191 Visser US. Cl. 312/246, 206/19.5 E, 308/3.6 Int. Cl..... Fl6c 29/00, A47b 88/00, B60n 3/08 Field of Search 312/332, 330, 246;

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,586,394 6/1971 Hecksel 308/3.6 3,321,253 5/1967 Everburg 312/332 X 3,521,938 7/1970 Emaus 312/246 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 938,568 10/1963 Great Britain 206/195 E III,

[111 3,738,725 June 12, 1973 Primary Examiner-Joseph R. Leclair Assistant Examiner-John M. Caskie Attorney--Whittemore, l-lulbert & Belknap [5 7] ABSTRACT The ash receiver of the invention is of the type adapted for installation on the dashboard of an automobile. It includes a housing for fastening to the vehicle dashboard and a drawer slidably received in the housing. The drawer has elongated projections on each sidewall thereof which are received in concave grooves of elongated plastic guide elements secured to the sidewalls of the housing. The guide elements are fabricated from a resilient plastic material such as nylon or ABS resin. .The guide elements include lip portions which exert spring-like pressure on the projections. The interior wall surfaces of the concave recesses converge to form an ever-narrowing recess to thereby permit reception of projections which may vary in dimension.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEBMI 2am INVENTOR JO/l/l/ 6. V/Jdff? ATTORNEYS ASH RECEIVER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The ash receiver of the present invention is of the type normally provided in vehicles such as automobiles and trucks. Such ash receivers include a housing for mounting on the dashboard and a drawer which is slidable in and out of the housing. It is important in the design of such ash receivers that the cost of the product be kept as low as possible while the operational characteristics be maintained at a satisfactory level. The ash receiver must not rattle or be loose, the drawer must easily slide in and out of the housing while at the same time being maintained in its closed or open position without sliding in one direction or the other as the result of vibration and like forces encountered during use of the vehicle.

The present invention provides an ash receiver construction which meets these requirements. A plastic guide element is provided on the housing to receive elongated projections provided on the drawer. The guide element has a concave recess for the reception of the projections and results in the following advantages:

1. Easy sliding action of the drawer but a frictionhold in all positions as a result of application of sufficient pressure by the guide elements.

2. A construction in which the guide elements may be angled downwardly for downward movement of the drawer upon withdrawal thereof but still permitting a straight pull on the drawer'during opening thereof.

3. The prevention of rattling during operation of the vehicle and the avoidance of squeak upon opening or closing of the drawer because there is no metal-tometal contact between the guide elements and the drawer.

4. Automatic compensation for production dimensional variations and also design variations.

5. The guide elements may be varied in length for economy purposes in making standard and deluxe ash receivers but which, when made in short lengths, will still give satisfactory service, although less stability on standard units.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The vehicle ash receiver comprises a housing for fastening to a vehicle. A drawer for ashes is removably received in the housing. The drawer has an elongated projection on each side thereof. The housing has an elongated guide element on each side of the drawer slidably receiving said projections and supporting the drawer thereby. The guide elements are fabricated of a resilient plastic material and include a concave recess having converging surfaces extending from the mouth thereof which receive the drawer projections.

IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an ash receiver with portions broken away for the purpose of clarity in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the ash receiver of FIG. 1 taken substantially along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 3 is a view in perspective of the guide element utilized in the ash receiver construction.

FIG. 1 illustrates a vehicle ash receiver comprising a housing 12 and a drawer or tray 14 which is removably received in the housing 12. In use, the housing 12 is secured to a suitable panel or support structure in a vehicle, usually the vehicle dashboard. The housing 12 is made from metal and comprises an upper plate-like portion 16 having downwardly directed sidewalls 18, 20 on each side thereof.

The drawer 14 is made from metal and includes a bottom 22 having upwardly extending sidewalls or wall panels 24, 26. A forwardly slanting front wall structure 28 and an upstanding rear wall 30 complete the drawer structure. Each of the sidewalls 24, 26 is provided with a longitudinally extending projection 32, 34. The projections 32, 34 have a curved cross-sectional configuration. These projections each extend from a point adjacent to the bottom wall 22 and the front wall structure 28 and are angled upwardly towards the rear of the drawer. The projections terminate adjacent to the rear wall 30 and upper edge of the drawer.

As will be noted in FIG. 1, a downwardly extending hook-like element 36 is secured to the forward end of the housing top wall 16. A portion 38 extends downwardly and forms a stop to limit the degree of insertion of the drawer 14. An elongated curved spring element 40 is secured to the rear wall 30 of the drawer. The spring element 40 extends forwardly and has a hump 42 adjacent its forward end; A finger engageable lip 44 extends forwardly from the hump 42. Upon withdrawal of the drawer, the portion 38 of the hook 36 will contact the hump 42 thus limiting the extent of opening of the tray. When it is desired to empty the tray, the lip 44 is manually engaged to depress the spring 40 and thereby permit complete withdrawal of the drawer.

The drawer 14 is guided and supported by means of a pair of elongated guide elements 46, 48. The guide elements 46, 48 each comprises a block of slippery, resilient plastic material such as nylon or ABS which is a thermoplastic polymer of acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene. As will be noted in FIG. 3, the guide element 46 comprises a solid portion 50 having a relatively flat outer surface 52 and curved top and bottom surfaces 54, 56 respectively which, at the juncture of the top surface 52, define elongated projections or mounting rails 58, 60.

As will be noted in FIG. 2, the projections or rails 58, 60 serve to mount the guide elements onto the housing sidewalls 18, 20. Oppositely disposed portions 62, 64 of the housing sidewalls are first punched outwardly after which the guide elements 46, 48 are set therebetween. These portions are then staked inwardly to firmly mount the guide elements in place.

As will be noted, the guide elements are mounted in alignment with the projections 32, 34 of the drawer. The shape of the surfaces 54, 56 may be varied as desired. These surfaces are satisfactory when flat, curved, or otherwise configured.

A longitudinal concave recess is provided in the inner surface of the guide element 46, 48 and extends the entire length thereof. Spring-like lips or lip portions 72, 78 are formed at the outer portions of the recess. The lips 72, 78 are flared slightly outwardly. The opposed surfaces 80, 82 of the recess 70 are angled inwardly to converge at the curved bottom of the recess. This results in the recess having a constantly decreasing diameter from the lip portion 72, 78 to the bottom. The lip portions 72, 78 are thin-walled and flexible, with the terminal edges 73 thereof spaced from the drawer or wall panels 24, 26 as shown in FIG. 2.

As will be noted in FIG. 2, the projections 32, 34 are received in the recesses of the guide elements. The projections have oppositely disposed sidewalls which are dimensioned so that the distance therebetween is less than the distance between the lips 72, 78 but greater than the distance between portions of the opposed surfaces 80, 82 at some point interiorly of the recess. Preferably, this point is located just slightly beyond the lips 72, 78 as shown in FIG. 2. Preferably, the sidewalls of the projections are curved and converge towards each other as illustrated in FIG. 2. The curvature results in smooth contact with the guide elements. However, within the scope of the invention, it is only necessary that the sidewalls are positioned apart as above described, that is, a distance less than the distance between the lips 72, 78 but greater than the distance between some point along the surfaces 80, 82.

The lips 72, 78 serve as tensioning devices and are slightly spread apart from their original undeformed position, as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 3, after insertion of the drawer projections 32, 34. When each projection 32, 34 is seated in recess 70 there is a clearance or space 71 provided between the projection and the bottom of the recess 70 as shown in FlG. 2. The lips exert a constant pressure against the drawer projections and thus firmly mount the drawer while at the same time inhibiting drawer movement sufficiently to prevent unwanted opening or closing of the drawer as a result of vehicle vibration or the like. The guide elements result in easy sliding action with a slight friction hold in all positions and the lips exert sufficient pres sure to accomplish this.

One feature of the use of the guide elements 46, 48 may be appreciated from the angulation of the projections 32, 34. When the drawer 14 is withdrawn, it will be withdrawn at a downward angle so that in the open position, the opening to the drawer will be positioned beneath the housing top wall 16. This is desirable in use of such ash receivers. However, the user will tend to pull the drawer straight outwardly rather than downwardly along the angle of the projections 32, 34. The flexibility of the guide elements 46, 48 permits such a straight pull without jamming.

By fabricating the guide elements from a plastic material, rattling of the ash receptacle is eliminated because there is no metal-to-metal contact. Additionally, there is no squeak in opening and closing the drawer 14 because of the absence of metal-to-metal contact. A further feature of the use of the flexible guide elements 46, 48 is that these guide elements compensate for dimensional variations in the parts which normally occur in mass production techniques. If the projections 32, 34 are slightly greater or smaller than desired, they may be inserted further into the recesses in the guide elements or inserted less into the recesses while still resulting in an operable assembly. This feature reduces production costs. The length of the guide elements may be varied. The shorter the length, the less stability. Shorter length units would commonly be used on a standard design while longer units, resulting in greater stability, would be used on a deluxe ash receptacle design.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A vehicle ash receiver comprising a housing for fastening to a vehicle, said housing including a pair of side walls, a drawer for ashes removably received in said housing, said drawer having a pair of side panels parallel to the direction of movement of said drawer relative to said housing, said panels having elongated drawer projections extending laterally outwardly toward said side walls, with one projection on each side panel of said drawer, said housing having elongated guide elements within the interior thereof secured to said side walls, one guide element directly opposite each side panel of the drawer, said guide elements slidably receiving said drawer projections and supporting the drawer thereby, each of said guide elements being fabricated from a resilient plastic material and including top, bottom and inner and outer surfaces, said inner surface being provided with a concave recess which receives the corresponding drawer projection and having converging surfaces extending from the mouth to the bottom thereof, said drawer projections being narrower than the width of the mouth of the concave recesses but wider than the distance between interior points on the converging surfaces of the recesses whereby pressure contact is made by said drawer projections with the guide elements, portions of the top and bottom surfaces of each guide element defining the outer surfaces of a pair of thin-walled flexible lip portions located adjacent the mouth of the concave recess, said lip portions deflecting upon reception of the drawer projections and applying thereto spring-like pressure, said drawer projections having a width which permits said projections to contact the converging surfaces of the concave recesses at said interior points inwardly of the mouth of the recesses but adjacent to said lip portions, said drawer projections when seated in said recesses being spaced from the bottoms thereof, and the terminal edges of said lip portions being spaced from the side panels of said drawer, the outer surface of each guide element being flat and abutting the adjacent side wall of the housing, with each guide element adjacent the outer surface thereof being provided with upper and lower elongated mounting rails, and retainer means on the side walls engageable with the inner surfaces of upper and lower mounting rails on said guide elements to hold the outer surfaces of the guide elements in engagement with said side walls, said retainer means comprising elongated, upper and lower strips punched inwardly from the material of said side walls, said strips extending toward each other and the longitudinally extending free edges thereof overlapping said mounting rails.

2. The vehicle ash receiver as defined in claim 1, further characterized in that said projections extend for substantially the length of the drawer, said guide elements having a length extending over only a portion of the length of the projections. 

1. A vehicle ash receiver comprising a housing for fastening to a vehicle, said housing including a pair of side walls, a drawer for ashes removably received in said housing, said drawer having a pair of side panels parallel to the direction of movement of said drawer relative to said housing, said panels having elongated drawer projections extending laterally outwardly toward said side walls, with one projection on each side panel of said drawer, said housing having elongated guide elements within the interior thereof secured to said side walls, one guide element directly opposite each side panel of the drawer, said guide elements slidably receiving said drawer projections and supporting tHe drawer thereby, each of said guide elements being fabricated from a resilient plastic material and including top, bottom and inner and outer surfaces, said inner surface being provided with a concave recess which receives the corresponding drawer projection and having converging surfaces extending from the mouth to the bottom thereof, said drawer projections being narrower than the width of the mouth of the concave recesses but wider than the distance between interior points on the converging surfaces of the recesses whereby pressure contact is made by said drawer projections with the guide elements, portions of the top and bottom surfaces of each guide element defining the outer surfaces of a pair of thin-walled flexible lip portions located adjacent the mouth of the concave recess, said lip portions deflecting upon reception of the drawer projections and applying thereto spring-like pressure, said drawer projections having a width which permits said projections to contact the converging surfaces of the concave recesses at said interior points inwardly of the mouth of the recesses but adjacent to said lip portions, said drawer projections when seated in said recesses being spaced from the bottoms thereof, and the terminal edges of said lip portions being spaced from the side panels of said drawer, the outer surface of each guide element being flat and abutting the adjacent side wall of the housing, with each guide element adjacent the outer surface thereof being provided with upper and lower elongated mounting rails, and retainer means on the side walls engageable with the inner surfaces of upper and lower mounting rails on said guide elements to hold the outer surfaces of the guide elements in engagement with said side walls, said retainer means comprising elongated, upper and lower strips punched inwardly from the material of said side walls, said strips extending toward each other and the longitudinally extending free edges thereof overlapping said mounting rails.
 2. The vehicle ash receiver as defined in claim 1, further characterized in that said projections extend for substantially the length of the drawer, said guide elements having a length extending over only a portion of the length of the projections. 